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Objavljeno :  26 Apr 2022

Winner announced for the 2022 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture

A university building wins the EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture.

2022 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture-Mies-award Winners

The European Commission and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation announced the winners of the 2022 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award and the 2022 Emerging Architecture Prize.

First prize for Grafton Architects, Dublin for the Town House – Kingston University, London

Town House is part of Kingston University in London. It was designed by Grafton Architects, from Dublin. It is rewarded for its remarkable environmental quality creating an excellent atmosphere for studying, dancing, gathering and being together.

The building creates an emotional experience from within and through the multi-level facade that creates a domestic atmosphere on different levels. It accommodates library, study and dance spaces using layers of silence and layers of sound which work perfectly well together.

This is the first time that a university building wins the architecture prize, and it shows that there is a need for public educational projects with the quality of this one, which dignifies people’s lives through education and being together and gives the same educational possibilities to everybody.

The winning authors, Grafton Architects, a studio co-founded in 1978 by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, have a strong expertise in educational buildings.

2022 Emerging Architect Prize for La Borda by Barcelona studio Lacol

La Borda is a housing cooperative in Barcelona, designed by Barcelona studio Lacol.

This cooperative project is transgressive in its context because although housing production is mainly dominated by macroeconomic interests, in this case, the model is based on co-ownership and co-management of shared resources and capacities.

The model goes beyond the specific project of cooperative housing: the studio itself is also run as a cooperative where 14 professionals with different expertise offer a role model and an active tool for promoting political and urban change from within the system, based on social, ecological and economic sustainability.

I congratulate the winners of the EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award, who have demonstrated the creative and innovative potential of European architecture. It is particularly encouraging to see the contribution of contemporary architecture to improving the well-being of citizens in Europe like we are also doing with the New European Bauhaus.

– Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth.

The awarded projects have been chosen from a list of 532 works from 41 countries. The jury visited the following selected 5 finalists together with the architects, the clients or developers, the users and the local experts:

  • Z33 House for Art, Architecture and Design in Hasselt
  • Town House – Kingston University in London
  • the Railway Farm in Paris
  • 85 social housing units in Cornellà de Llobregat
  • Frizz23 in Berlin

The 2 finalists for the Emerging Architecture Prize were

  • Enrico Fermi School, Turin, by BDR bureau
  • La Borda - Cooperative Housing, Barcelona, by Laco

About the selection process

The international jury adopted an active and open attitude based on dialogue and debate between the different positions of each of its members.

Members of the jury

  • Tatiana Bilbao
  • Francesca Ferguson
  • Mia Hägg
  • Triin Ojari
  • Georg Pendl
  • Spiros Pengas
  • Marcel Smets

The jury members wanted to show the architectural community that they chose the winners after assessing the works’ complementary diversity with high added value and how they make extraordinary contributions in different and specific contexts.

Events following the announcement

The award ceremony will take place on 12 May at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona in the context of Model. Barcelona Architectures Festival.

The “EUmies Awards 2022 exhibition” will embark on its tour around Europe with an opening in Cologne on 10 June with Baukultur Nordrhein-Westfalen, a venue at BOZAR, Brussels starting the 21 July, and a venue at the Architekturzentrum Wien in Vienna in October.

The ‘EUmies Awards 2022’ will be presented as a photo exhibition at KU Leuven in the context of the New European Bauhaus Festival between 9 and 12 June.

A similar exhibition and debate on Serbian architecture in the EUmies Awards will take place in Belgrade during the Belgrade International Architecture Week (BINA) that takes place from 26 May to 7 July.

Timeline of the events

About the awards

The EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture/Mies van der Rohe Award is presented biennially to works completed by architects from and in Creative Europe participating countries within the previous 2 years.

The €60,000 biennial prize, which is the most prestigious in European architecture, was launched in 1987 to highlight the contribution of European architects to the development of new ideas and technologies in contemporary urban development. It is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe.

The principal objectives of the Prize is to recognise and commend excellence and innovation in the field of architecture. It also highlights the important contribution of European professionals to the sustainable development and transformation of Europe’s built environment.

The last edition with entries from the UK

The 2022 Prize edition is the last edition under which the UK was eligible and therefore the Town House has been able to win. In the funding period 21-27, UK entities are not eligible to participate in EU grants procedures by default, since the UK became a third country with the entry into force of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement signed on 1 February 2020.

Tagged in:  Creative Europe
Objavljeno :  26 Apr 2022